Expectations were very high by the time Jesus made his appearance as a baby in a Bethlehem stable. The Jews had waited hundreds of years for the coming of Messiah. They were confident that, in short order after his appearing, Jesus would set the world upright and usher in a period of eternal peace and prosperity for the nation.

The tax-free housing allowance for ministers remains intact because a federal appeals court in Chicago struck down a challenge to the benefit on Nov. 13. The leaders of the Freedom from Religion Foundation who challenged the constitutionality of the allowance lacked legal standing to sue, according to the court.

I attended the Missouri Baptist Convention annual meeting Oct. 27-29 and ran into a number of friends. I had a chance to spend some one-on-one time with a couple of them and really appreciated catching up a little. Unfortunately, I do not see either of them more than once or twice a year.

People who know me well realize I have been a major league baseball fan of the team in St. Louis almost since I was born an hour away in southern Illinois. Frankly, it was expected of every family member shortly after his or her birth.

The execution of yet another journalist, Steven Sotloff, by the terror group ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) demonstrates human behavior at its most vile. Sotloff, an Israeli citizen, and James Foley, an American beheaded two weeks ago, were innocents simply doing their jobs.